My name is Jackie Mattson and my Watermark is the St. Lawrence River. The first time I came down here was with my husband before I got married. Aunt Mary, his mother’s sister, was living up on the point here. She met us over in Kingston. We came across over on the ferry and we hitch-hiked a ride down to the 10th line road and then we walked in. It was raining, it was cold, it was miserable. It looked like the end of the world. We got to her cottage, it didn’t have electricity in there at the time. It was an old building. And I thought, what am I getting myself in for. This property was bought in 1870 by an alderman in Kingston. He bought this property, and he didn’t develop it, but his one son did. He made a picnic area out of it for the people for Kingston, etc. He made a big dock, and the ferry would come across and the picnikers would have a good time here. We had the whole pointe which was 170 acres. Then as it got down to the third generation, some of those young kids sold off some of their property. It was divided up quite a bit. Now, we are into the seventh generation (my great grandchildren), so 1870 to now. Everybody has really really enjoyed the property. We come down in the summer, sometimes in the fall or spring.

This beautiful spot, we all really appreciate it and so do the rest of the family and the people who bought the property from some of the relatives. It is too bad that it was broken up a bit, there were six children who got property out of the 160 acres. So when it came down to us, we got 7 acres. So if our children want to build on it, there are 7 acres here which they can use. We have a lovely big shoreline. The nice thing about living here is that everyone thinks they have the best piece of property and I think that’s good.

We are from Kitchener and there is no water around there at all so coming down here and having all this water is a real treat. It’s worth getting up in the morning to see the sun come up. From my bedroom I can see the sun come up and I can see the sun go down. They are both beautiful fascinating pictures. The water here now is quite clean. It was dirty when we first moved down, but it’s been cleaned up a lot. The marsh doesn’t intrude on us as it did years ago. I've been coming down here for 62 years and have seen quite a bit of change in the people on the property and the water. And the water has definitely been getting cleaner. Kids did a lot of fishing when they were little. They got beautiful fish, huge smallmouth bass and big mouth bass. We got some really good pictures of these huge fish. We had cattle on the property at one time. We had sheep on the property at one time. We didn’t have to cut the grass, the animals looked after it for us. It was very low key when we came down here. Having the water here is wonderful. In the winter, if it is still day and it just snowed, it is so quiet and so beautiful, it is just amazing. Even if it isn’t quiet, can cross country ski here and skate. All I can say is everybody really enjoy it and we all really appreciate it.